You don't really get many opportunities to visit a war zone in real life, but sometimes it's just your lucky day. Thanks to all of the connections Birthright has fostered throughout the years, we got to visit a real army base in Karabakh and go out to the second line of defense.
The army base was interesting to say the least, just picture hundreds of young Armenian boys- seeing a group of diasporan kids walking around on their base (with 12 women in the group). Oh, good times. They all looked so young to be serving in the army- the draft age here is 18 years old. It was a very well organized, well run operation- with the guys marching in and out of the mess hall in tandem. Eating like clockwork, joking around with each other, and trying to make the best of their time there.
As part of our army tour, we also got to drive out to the Azeri border to see how the soldiers live on the front line. This is the part of Karabakh which is all valley, miles and miles of beautiful fields just stretching out before you. On the way to the front line, we passed through the now deserted city of Aghdam. Aghdam was an Azeri city overtaken by the Karabakh army during the war. It is fascinating to see the remains of this huge city, with grass just growing through all of the destruction now. It is such a weird mix of destruction and natural beauty that you don't really know what to make of it.
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